


I let you drift away

by SparrowPixie



Series: Sweetest Downfall [3]
Category: The Daevabad Trilogy - S. A. Chakraborty
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post EOG, Smut, dont argue with me it is, this is smut but there’s more story than smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:47:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28271133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparrowPixie/pseuds/SparrowPixie
Summary: Dara takes Nahri to the veil to visit Daevabad while he will wait for her return
Relationships: Darayavahoush e-Afshin/Nahri e-Nahid
Series: Sweetest Downfall [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985926
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	I let you drift away

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to astarisms for her help with this one!
> 
> Littlethiefs, I’ve added some angry Dara just for you

Nahri would be visiting her family in Daevabad tomorrow. It had been about two years since she had left to find Dara and she made it no secret three weeks ago that she missed Jamshid and her grandfather. Dara did not hesitate. He felt no regret. He simply stocked their supplies, helped her atop their carpet and they set out immediately for Daevabad.

It was the least Dara could do, truthfully. She’d gone to great lengths to seek him out. She’d patiently waited for him to return. She’d kept a spot vacant for him in her heart. Nahri was good to him in spite of everything and he could never repay her. But he could make a start by happily taking her to Daevabad. By not mentioning how much he would miss her company. By keeping his concerns that she would not return to himself. 

They’d arrived at the Gozan late in the night. Nahri determined that she should wait until dawn to enter the veil. Anything else would appear suspicious and after word had spread that she had sought out Darayavahoush e-Afshin, she could afford no rumors. 

So they set up camp in the cave. Their cave.

And while the need to finish what they had started there tugged at both of them, they were honestly too exhausted from their journey to physically exert themselves.

“Aren’t you going to ask when I’ll be back?” Nahri said, spooning the last of her soup into her mouth. 

Dara grimaced, setting down his bowl and reclining onto his elbows. “I imagined you would tell me before we parted ways. I’d welcome the information now though.”

She winced as she spoke. “Maybe six months.”

“Six months?” Dara repeated, quirking a brow. “Is this supposed to concern me?”

Nahri pursed her lips. “That’s a good chunk of time. I expected you would be… sad.”

“Banu Nahida, I’ve lived fourteen hundred years. Six months to me is essentially a few weeks,” he explained with a wry smile. “And this may be the least amount of time we’ve been separated. Six months is nothing compared to eight years.”

She nodded. Dara noticed the pursing of her lips did not ease. The creasing of her forehead remained. She was in her thirties now. Months were not what they were when she was twenty, but it was still quite a bit of time. She set down her bowl limply, laying on her side and propping her chin up on her palm. 

“It could be longer,” she sighed. “I just want to allow Jamshid some time to leave. I imagine he may feel… caged.”

“Of course,” Dara shrugged. “It’s kind of you to consider him. Do yourself a favor and don’t concern yourself with me. You’ve got enough people to worry about.”

“Yes.” Her voice was detached. “I will miss you though. Very much.”

“And I will miss you,” he said warmly. He reached a hand over to tuck a loose curl back into her chador. “But I will be fine, Nahri. I’ll chase down a few ifrit leads. Try and gather more vessels. Maybe I’ll visit Irtemiz or my Sahrayn friends. I will not be lonely in your absence, little thief. I ask again that you do not add me to your list of troubles.”

“What if it is more than six months?” she asked quietly.

The flickering of their campfire illuminated her face, casting shadows over the worried lines. Dara’s hand cupped her cheek, he ran a thumb over the creases by her mouth, then over her forehead, smoothing them. She smiled in spite of herself.

“Then it is more than six months,” he said softly. “I’ll return for you. If you are not ready, simply leave me a note here.”

She bowed her head in his hand. “And if they don’t want me?”

“What?” Dara said, his voice heavily colored with surprise. “How could they not want you?”

“They didn’t exactly sing my praises after you left… saving the city or not. Rumors circulated that I had let you leave, not to mention I am shafit… I advocated for them too.”

This time Dara frowned. After all she’d done, after everything she’d given up, the people of Daevabad’s prejudices still ran deep. So deep that she seemed… scared. Nahri was rarely scared. And what was worse, Dara thought she may have good reason to be.

“Prejudice is a powerful thing. It took me a millennia to overcome and I still struggle with my internalized prejudice now. I cannot promise you the Daeva will welcome you with open arms,” Dara said. He gave her a somber smile. “But you have many people on your side. Whatever Djinn frown upon you for associating with me will be quelled by your strange prince. Any Daeva who resent you for your blood would not dare cross the Baga Nahid. I have no doubt this visit is far more likely to be a good thing than bad.”

“I guess.”

“Nahri,” Dara said in a kind but firm voice. “Would I ever risk your safety?”

Nahri snorted. “Not _now_ you wouldn’t. You did, however, set ghouls and monsters loose in my city at one point. You shot me with an arrow once…”

If it weren’t for their time together and her teasing tone, the words would have stung. But she had long forgiven him and if he was being honest with himself… he’d walked right into that one.

“All complete misunderstandings,” Dara said with a sheepish smile. “I had your best interests in mind… though they may have been slightly misplaced.”

“Just slightly,” Nahri shrugged. 

“Nevertheless,” Dara continued in a gentle voice. “I would never let you do anything that would put you in harm’s way. I have faith you will be safe and I am certain that… that if you do not go, you will regret it.”

Nahri closed her eyes. Dara offered a sad smile. Creator, for all his kind words, he would miss her. The time apart was short compared to what they’d been through, but the small doubt he had of her return was already starting to eat away at him.

“You’re a good man,” Nahri said.

Her voice was so confident that it made Dara flush. 

He smiled wanly. “Far from it. But if you felt so inclined to pass that along in Daevabad I would not hold it against you.”

Nahri laughed and he realized just how much he would miss that sound. How he would miss making her smile. Suleiman’s eye, there was nothing he treasured more than his ability to bring a smile to her lips. Almost unknowingly, his thumb brushed her lower lip. He wanted to memorize the feeling of her skin. He wanted to be able to close his eyes and see her smile. He didn’t want to struggle to recall a single aspect of her during their time apart.

“Afshin,” Nahri said, a playful lilt to her voice. “For someone who claimed they would not miss me you certainly seem troubled…”

“I never said I would not miss you, Banu Nahida.”

She grinned at him, her dark eyes sparkling with humor. “Such fondness for the shafit thief?”

The response came to him as easily as it did all those years ago.

“I can change my mind, can’t I?”

Nahri inclined her head, lips brushing with his. Dara shuddered slightly at her touch. When he pulled back the faintest grin played on her face.

“I don’t think I’m so tired anymore…”

Dara chuckled. “Mm.”

“And we are practically condemned to celibacy for the next six months.”

“As I said, little thief, the time shall fly by for me,” Dara shrugged. He feigned confusion. “Unless you are concerned-“

“Shut up, Dara,” Nahri growled, pressing her lips to his again.

“My thief,” Dara said in between her kisses. “I’m surprised at your desperation. If I recall I’ve kept you satiated.”

Nahri nipped at his ear. “Ya, please.”

“On the carpet when my head was between your thighs,” Dara purred. “In the river when my fingers were inside you.” 

Nahri straddled his waist, abruptly.

“I thought for certain you’d be fulfilled when I had you in our tent not long ago.”

“You’re awful,” Nahri said breathlessly, her lips grazing his jaw line.

Dara’s hand held her waist, his thumb running the length of her ribs tenderly. “Shall I show you just how awful I can be?”

There was a challenge in her smile that Dara happily accepted.

His hands hastily bunched her skirts up around her hips. She pulled down the waistband of his trousers and yanked off her top and headscarf. Dara’s hand instinctively reached up to cup the fullness of her breast, but Nahri seemed very preoccupied with undoing his jacket to run her fingers over the smooth plains of his muscles. Dara ran a finger of the peaked bud of her nipple as Nahri bowed over him pressing her lips to his.

She grabbed his length in her hand and Dara nearly spasmed in surprise. He felt her smile against his mouth as she ground her hips, moving in perfect time with her hand. He breathed her name like a prayer and a curse. She laughed against him.

And she called _him_ “smug.”

“Let me know when you’re close,” Nahri said, her breath hot against his neck.

Dara only nodded, his hands gripping her hips now, appreciating how they rounded outwards to fill his palms. 

_You’re a bad Afshin…_

Dara nearly rolled his eyes at the internal monologue that constantly threatened his happiness.

_I don’t think I mind it._

Dara’s gaze roamed over Nahri’s bare torso before making eye contact with her. She looked pleased and amused and he had to admit, there was something stimulating about the way those lips curved into a smart smile. Something that made his heart and stomach flip and flutter uncontrollably.

Something coiled in his stomach and he had the sudden urge to pull himself into her. He wanted to see that smile turn baffled. He wanted to see what he could do to her. His fingers found the two divets in her lower back as he felt himself begin to tip over the edge.

“I’m close, little thief.”

“Thank the Creator,” she said with a hoarse laugh. 

Nahri raised her hips, releasing Dara’s cock and slid onto him. Her walls were tight around him and he could feel her clench even tighter as she bucked her hips. His hands gripped her thighs tighter as he pulled her to him rhythmically, a quiet moan escaping her lips that sent a shiver down his spine.

Nahri leaned down, her elbow resting on the cave floor beside his face, breasts touching his chest. Heat washed over him at their softness and the contrast of the hard bud of her nipples. Her tongue grazed his lower lip, then her teeth gently tugged at him.

A low rumbling sound emitted from him, an almost primal noise. He gripped her tighter, as though if she removed him he would turn to ash. Nahri’s thighs clenched around his torso, she continued to grind her hips. 

“You’re holding back,” Nahri said, her voice tinged with a laugh.

He wasn’t though. He was simply lost in her. Intoxicated by her every touch. Drunk on it. His head was swimming as pleasure took hold of his senses.

But it was unacceptable for her to think he was holding back when he was completely powerless to her. 

So he moved his hips in perfect time with her, thrusting deeply, powerfully into her. Her breathing hitched and she sat up straight, tilting her head back, her curls spilling to touch the small of her back. Her lips parted and at the sight of what he was doing to her, Dara could hold back no longer.

His arm hooked around her waist as he pulled her down to him once more, burying his head in the crook of his shoulder as the orgasm crashed over him like a waterfall.

His chest heaved and he could hear the soft sound of her satisfied laughter against his neck. 

“Afshin, it’s only six months…”

Dara chuckled. “Perhaps I’m more concerned than I let on, little thief.”

Dara rolled out their bed mats, pushing them side by side, next to the fire. Nahri laid on her stomach, back to the cave ceiling, head resting sideways on the hands folded beneath her face.

Dara’s eyes traced the curve of her back, the warm color of her skin, the small indent just above the divets he loved to place his fingers in. He couldn’t help himself as his hand slid down the length of her back, trying to memorize the feel of her skin. He saw her shudder at the warmth of his touch, a content smile on her sleepy face.

He cleared his throat. “You’re certain you won’t be cold without your shirt?”

Nahri opened her eyes, they danced with amusement. “Not as long as you’re here.”

It was true. Often when they slept together under the blankets she would wake in a pool of sweat. It wasn’t uncommon for her to sleep nude with him. He wouldn’t complain.

“Dara.”

“Mmhm?”

“Make me a promise.”

Dara combed the hair away from her face with careful fingers. “Anything.”

“Promise to think of me often. And how terribly you miss me. Be in agony of my absence at least for an hour every few weeks,” she grinned.

He chuckled quietly. “Yes, I think I can manage that.”

_I will instead fret over whether I’ve lost you again…_

It was a silly thought. She was too stubborn to let anything stand in their way again. He had every faith in her. Still though, he could not shake the knot of worry in his stomach. When he next met her eyes she was frowning. It was as if she had read his mind.

“I’ll come back, Dara. I promise.”

He hated the relief the admission brought him. He understood the pain of being bound. It was the last thing he wanted for Nahri. For her decisions to be affected by him.

Dara’s thumb rubbed circles on her shoulder. The corner of his lip tilted up in a resigned smile.

“I would never ask that promise of you, Nahri. Being together means nothing if it is an obligation and not a choice.”

“Fine, I _choose_ to promise you that I’ll come back,” she shrugged. She was silent for a moment. “Besides… it’s not as though anyone wants me there.”

“Nahri,” Dara said, his brows drawing together. “I told you, you have plenty of people on your side. The shafit at the very least-“

“I never told you,” she began softly, “I was referred to as - um… the Scourge’s Whore for some time...”

For a moment Dara was blinded by rage. He sat up straight looking down at her incredulously. She propped herself up on her elbow and offered a wry smile. Dara felt that his eyes were wide. He felt a muscle in his jaw twitch.

“Come again?” he said, voice rough with anger. “When was this?”

Nahri looked at the fire, a wistful expression on her face that made his heart ache. “Just after you had died.”

Dara’s fists clenched, he felt his chest constrict. How dare they associate his crimes with her. How dare they even mention her in the same sentence as The Scourge. How dare they belittle Nahri’s emotions during her mourning. Dara felt her hand on his wrist.

“Who was it?”

Nahri shrugged, but Dara could see her flinch. “A lot of people… who are likely dead.”

_By your hand, Darayavahoush._

He should’ve felt remorse, he should have felt shame, all these years he’d regretted every life he took. But not now. No. Of all the souls he wished he could have brought back these people were not among them. He wished he could bathe in their blood, break their bones one by one-

“Dara.”

He hadn’t realized he was fuming until she spoke. He didn’t feel the hard line of his brows until her voice echoed in his ears. He was the Scourge again. He was not worthy of her. But no matter how hard he tried to be at peace, all he could see was Nahri grieving for him while being mocked. While having her love for him ridiculed. 

“Dara, it’s okay now.”

“There is nothing okay about-“

“What are you gonna do?” Nahri cut in. She exhaled, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I knew it would only upset you.”

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. 

Dara couldn’t take the distressed expression on her face. He couldn’t bear to see her so disappointed in him. To regret telling him something. He took her hand.

“Nahri, I’m sorry. I was angry. I do not like hearing that my crimes affected you in any way-“

“But they did and it’s over. It’s done,” she said with an errant wave of her hand. “It’s nothing but a bad memory now and I won’t give those people the honor of making it anything more.” Nahri pointed a finger at him, her expression stern. “And neither will you, alright?”

When she spoke she was undoubtedly the Banu Nahida. The fierceness in her eyes and the commanding tone of her voice. The Afshin lurking beneath the surface of Dara urged him to nod obediently. It must’ve been evident because Nahri smiled, snickering under her breath.

Dara harrumphed, slouching back to lie down. “Forgive me, I only wanted to defend your honor-“

“Stop,” Nahri all but cackled. “Don’t make me laugh. Please.”

“There is nothing humorous about you being attacked during your time of mourning,” growled Dara.

“And I don’t disagree. But we can’t change what happened. We can only say: fuck them, and be together. Alright?”

_Be together._

A wave of calm swept over Dara like a breeze. He nodded again, the idea of being with her in spite of all they’d faced relieving him somewhat. He ground his teeth.

“You’re lucky I’m in love with you, little thief.”

Nahri pulled the blanket over them both. “Yes, yes, Afshin. I am well aware.”

_Six months later…_

Dara’s heart had swelled with relief upon arriving at their cave on the Gozan to find no letter informing him that Nahri would be delayed. There was no indicator that they wouldn’t be reunited today. In a few hours. Maybe even moments.

But then an hour passed. Then more hours passed. Then the sun began to set and Dara’s heart slowly began to sink. Had she lost track of time? Had she forgotten today marked six months? Had she sent a messenger but they left the note in the wrong cave? Was she not sending anyone else at all because she couldn’t bear to tell him she would not be returning.

Oh, Creator, had they turned her on him? It wouldn’t take much convincing. He _was_ a monster after all.

Dara sank to sit on the edge of the cave, propping his elbow on his knees, his face in his hands.

He’d lost her. _Again._

_You have a purpose. You don’t have to hide. She is happy._

Unless she had run into trouble. Unless she had been attacked. Unless she had been harmed by those who refused to acknowledge her sacrifices and her courage. Suleiman’s eye, he would hunt down that weird prince himself and force him to take him into Daevabad. He would exact justice if anything had become of her.

He knew that he should’ve tracked rumors of Daevabad more closely but he had wanted to give her privacy. To demonstrate his trust. Besides, he knew he would overanalyze every whisper to determine if she was considering leaving him for good. 

Dara’s breathing became heavy and there was a lump in his throat he could not swallow. 

But then arms were around his shoulders and he knew without opening his eyes who it was. He recognized the firm but slender embrace of his Banu Nahida and without thinking his arms wrapped around her.

“Creator, Banu Nahida,” he breathed.

“I’m late. I know,” she said into his shoulder. She pulled away, cupping his face in her hands. “Jamshid and I were frustratingly close to deciphering some old Nahid texts and I lost track of time.”

Nahri left his embrace and grabbed her bag. Dara blinked back the tears stinging his eyes, he could not let her know how worried he had been. She’d feel trapped, obligated, bound to him.

She pulled out a scroll case and removed a very delicate looking piece of parchment. She beamed at him, tapping it with her left index finger.

“We’re going to Tukharistan, Afshin,” Nahri grinned. “They should have some texts there to help me decipher these instructions at the bottom. And do you know what these instructions say?”

Too relieved and delighted to form complete sentences Dara only smiled and shrugged, prompting her to continue.

“These instructions indicate how we use Nahid blood to release slave vessels.”

She rolled the scroll back up, slipping it back inside its case. She shook her head, grinning to herself and muttering something about how far she’d come and how close they were. Nahri leaned forward, cupping the nape of his neck with her hand and pulling him to her for a firm kiss.

“I’m starving,” she sighed. “Make us some food and we’ll start discussing what you’ve been up to. And I’ll catch you up on all the Daevabad gossip. Including Jamshid.”

His head swam, happiness flooding his thoughts. She was back. She was glad to see him. They were about to have dinner and catch up and likely spend the whole night talking. 

Dara quickly wiped his nose with the back of his hand, climbing back into the cave to make them a fire. “Yes, I’m eager to hear about this.”

She followed him inside and flashed him a wicked grin. “And also, Kartir has an idea that I think you’ll be glad to learn.”


End file.
